Calculating Adobe Forms
Its been a long while since I've blogged. I had an interesting small project land on my desk that required calculating values based on radio buttons in an Adobe form. Initially, I figured this was a simple task that any office worker with intermediate knowledge could do. After digging into it farther I discovered Javascript had to be used for anything more than a simple sum, product, average, minimum or maximum.
The thumbnail picture at the beginning of this blog is just a small part of the form I had to work on. In this blog post, I will create a 5x4 table with radio buttons. At the bottom, I will sum the choices based on their value. Then I will find the sum of all the columns and find the mean of the choices.
I started out by creating a basic document in Microsoft Word.
After creating the PDF, I added the form fields and radio buttons. The group names were Question1, Question2, etc. Each button had the Radio Button Choice set to a unique value for each button group. For instance Question 1, and Question 2, both had 4,3,2,1, and 0.
That value was set by either right-clicking the button and selecting Properties or double-clicking the option under the question and entering the value.
After the radio buttons were set, I added simple text boxes for each column. Lastly, I added a Sum box and a Mean box.
Now that the form fields exist on the form, it is time to start adding the calculations.
I started with the first column, the 4s column. I went into the properties of the Total4s text box. I selected the Calculate tab, chose the "Custom calculation script", and clicked Edit.
This is the way I choose to calculate the values. I am certain there are other ways to accomplish this but this method seemed the most straight forward and scalable option for less tech-savvy users.
The first variable total4s is how we will track the number of buttons selected in the 4 column. I set it to 0 to make sure we are starting from the same place every time. Next, I use this.getField("Question1").value to get the value of the button selected. If the radio button in column 4 on Question 1 is selected, the value will be 4 based on the "Radio Button Choice" field referred to earlier. In my initial testing, I set the value to a variable. I then had the if statement evaluate based on that variable. After working to simplify the script, I realized I was able to evaluate the getField value directly.
Next, I entered the same code in for each Total3s, Total2s, Total1s, and Total0s. I modified the variable total4s to match the text box for each column (Total3s = total3s, Total2s = total2s, etc.). I also changed the condition value in the if statement to match the column number.
After entering the similar javascript in each text box I can test if I receive the expected value.
If the values aren't as expected, you may need to check the Field Calculation Order. The order is top down. For instance if a calculation depends on a previous calculation, the dependent calculation should be higher in the list. In this example, the Total*s must calculate before the sum and lastly the mean.
Now I will choose Preview so I can verify I am getting the expected.
At this point, the value only shows a 1 for each selection. For my needs, I want each selected column to have the value of that column in the total. So I would like any buttons in the 4 column to return 4 for their total and add up as buttons are selected. The way I did this was simply by taking the final line of the code event.value = total4s and multiplying it by the column value. Below is what I changed for the last line in each text box. For the 0 column text box, I don't have any calculations and set the default value to 0.
The next part is adding up the values. Fortunately, we are able to do this with built-in calculations. From the Properties > Calculate tab, I chose "Value is the" and left the default as "sum (+)". When choosing that field, the "Pick" button becomes active. I chose Total4s, Total3s, Total2s, and Total1s. Since Total0s will always be 0, I don't need to include it.
Next, I will find the mean. For that, I'm able to use another option in the Calculate tap under properties for a text box. "Simplified field notation" is the perfect solution to this. I just entered TotalSum/4.
Next, I entered the same code in for each Total3s, Total2s, Total1s, and Total0s. I modified the variable total4s to match the text box for each column (Total3s = total3s, Total2s = total2s, etc.). I also changed the condition value in the if statement to match the column number.
After entering the similar javascript in each text box I can test if I receive the expected value.
If the values aren't as expected, you may need to check the Field Calculation Order. The order is top down. For instance if a calculation depends on a previous calculation, the dependent calculation should be higher in the list. In this example, the Total*s must calculate before the sum and lastly the mean.
Now I will choose Preview so I can verify I am getting the expected.
At this point, the value only shows a 1 for each selection. For my needs, I want each selected column to have the value of that column in the total. So I would like any buttons in the 4 column to return 4 for their total and add up as buttons are selected. The way I did this was simply by taking the final line of the code event.value = total4s and multiplying it by the column value. Below is what I changed for the last line in each text box. For the 0 column text box, I don't have any calculations and set the default value to 0.
The next part is adding up the values. Fortunately, we are able to do this with built-in calculations. From the Properties > Calculate tab, I chose "Value is the" and left the default as "sum (+)". When choosing that field, the "Pick" button becomes active. I chose Total4s, Total3s, Total2s, and Total1s. Since Total0s will always be 0, I don't need to include it.
Next, I will find the mean. For that, I'm able to use another option in the Calculate tap under properties for a text box. "Simplified field notation" is the perfect solution to this. I just entered TotalSum/4.
After all that, the final product
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